Week to Week Political Roundtable: February 22, 2024

Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki knows it’s the follow-up questions that can be the most difficult to handle. When she was asked “Why do wars start?” by one of her children, she carefully explained and then got a follow up: “Have you ever seen a unicorn?” Not many White House press secretaries capture the nation’s interest the way Jen Psaki did. Refreshingly candid and clear, Psaki quickly became known for her ability to break through the noise and successfully deliver her message. Since leaving the White House, Psaki’s star has continued to rise. She launched a highly rated show on MSNBC and was so successful that in just six months she was given an additional primetime Monday slot, ahead of Rachel Maddow. Psaki comes to Commonwealth Club World Affairs to discuss the issues raised in her new book Say More. In it, Psaki explains her straightforward approach to communication, walking people through difficult conversations as well as moments where humor saves the day—whether it is with preschoolers, partners or presidents. She addresses the best ways to give and receive feedback, how to connect with your audience, how to listen actively, and much more. She’ll be in conversation with another veteran of the high-stakes world of White House communications, President Obama’s White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer. Don’t miss this chance to hear the lessons learned behind the most famous podium in the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“An important book that will transform how we think about being human. . . . that will inspire hope.”—Jane Goodall Many people in today’s world seek to reclaim the soul-deepening wildness that grounds them and energizes them when so much of the modern world seems designed to tame them. In his thrilling memoir of a life spent exploring the most incredible places on Earth—from the Great African Seaforest to the crocodile lairs of the Okavango Delta—Craig Foster reveals how people can attend to the earthly beauty around them and deepen their love for all living things, whether they make their homes in the country, the city or anywhere in between. Foster will draw on the work he put into his new book, Amphibious Soul: Finding the Wild in a Tame World. In it, he explores his struggles to remain present to life when a disconnection from nature and the demands of his professional life begin to deaden his senses. And his own reliance on nature’s rejuvenating spiritual power is put to the test when catastrophe strikes close to home Foster is one of the world’s leading natural history filmmakers and won the 2021 Academy Award for Best Documentary for My Octopus Teacher. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When the revolution comes . . . what next? As a Hillary voter, New York Times reporter, and frequenter of her local gay bars, Nellie Bowles fit right in with her San Francisco neighbors and friends—until she started questioning whether the progressive movement she knew and loved was actually helping people. When her colleagues suggested that asking such questions meant she was “on the wrong side of history,” Bowles did what any reporter worth her salt would do: she started investigating for herself. The answers she found were stranger—and funnier—than she expected. In her new book Morning After the Revolution, Bowles gives readers a front-row seat to the absurd drama of a political movement gone mad. With irreverent accounts of attending a multi-day course on “The Toxic Trends of Whiteness,” following the social justice activists who run “Abolitionist Entertainment LLC,” and trying to please The New York Times’s “disinformation czar,” she deftly exposes the more comic excesses of a movement that went from a sideshow to the very center of American life. Join us as Bowles shares her funny and painfully insightful look at “a moment of collective psychosis preserved in amber.” This program contains EXPLICIT language. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While the climate benefits from booming electric vehicle sales, the nation’s transportation system faces an unfortunate predicament: less gasoline and diesel purchased means dwindling fuel tax revenue. Fuel tax revenue provides a core funding source for operating, maintaining, and improving transportation systems, so policymakers must find a replacement as soon as possible. This event explores such options as mileage fees, higher annual vehicle fees, or abandoning the user-pay principle and relying on general fund revenue.   This program is supported by the Mineta Transportation Institute at San José State University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Summer is coming soon, and for many that means vacation. While traveling far and wide can be an amazing experience, the carbon cost of traveling is significant. But what if we could rekindle a sense of awe in our own neighborhoods? After years of extreme expeditions all over the world, adventurer Alastair Humphreys spent a year exploring the detailed local map around his home. His new book “Local” is an ode to slowing down, as well as a rallying cry to protect the wild places on our doorstep. This episode also features field reporting from Producers Austin Colón and Megan Biscieglia. Guest:  Alastair Humphreys, Author, adventurer It's time for our annual spring appeal! At Climate One, we believe in the power of open conversations to drive positive change. Through our thought-provoking discussions and interviews, we strive not only to raise awareness of climate issues and solutions, but to also empower individuals — like each of our valued listeners — to take tangible steps toward a more sustainable future.  You can show your support for Climate One by contributing to our spring fundraising campaign. For show notes and related links, visit our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our Children’s Trust (OCT) was founded in 2010 on the idea that courts are vital to democracy and empowered to protect our children and the planet. Without a stable climate system, every natural resource we rely upon to exercise our basic human rights—life, liberty, home, happiness—is under threat. In this conversation, you'll hear from Mat dos Santos, OCT's co-executive director, and two youth plaintiffs about how Our Children's Trust is changing the conversation around climate by activating the courts in the face of political gridlock. Last year, OCT represented 169 young plaintiffs globally in landmark cases such as Juliana v. U.S. and Held v. State of Montana—the first cases, worldwide, to recognize the right to a climate system capable of sustaining human life, and to enshrine science-based protections for children’s fundamental rights into law. On June 1, 2022, 14 youth in Hawai'i filed a constitutional climate lawsuit against the State of Hawai'i claiming that their operation of a transportation system that results in high levels of greenhouse gas emissions violates their state constitutional rights, causing them significant harm and impacting their ability to “live healthful lives in Hawai'i now and into the future.” The youth seek to ensure the Hawai'i Department of Transportation steps up to meet the state legislature’s goal to decarbonize Hawai'is economy and achieve a zero emissions economy by 2045.  In coordination with more than 50 prominent scientists, including Nobel Prize laureates, OCT also presented legal and scientific analyses on climate change impacts to various international and regional tribunals, including the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, U.N. Special Rapporteur for Human Rights and the Environment, U.N. Special Rapporteur in the Field of Cultural Rights, European Court of Human Rights, International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, and Inter-American Court of Human Rights. MLF ORGANIZER Andrew Dudley   A People & Nature Member-led Forum program. Forums at the Club are organized and run by volunteer programmers who are members of The Commonwealth Club, and they cover a diverse range of topics. Learn more about our Forums. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn about the forgotten story of a pioneering group of five Black ballerinas and their 50-year sisterhood, a legacy unknown—until now. At the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Lydia Abarca was a Black prima ballerina with a major international dance company—the Dance Theatre of Harlem, a troupe of women and men who became each other’s chosen family. She was the first Black company ballerina on the cover of Dance magazine, an Essence cover star; she was cast in The Wiz and in a Bob Fosse production on Broadway. She performed in some of ballet’s most iconic works with other trailblazing ballerinas, including the young women who became her closest friends—founding Dance Theatre of Harlem members Gayle McKinney-Griffith and Sheila Rohan, as well as first-generation dancers Karlya Shelton and Marcia Sells. These Swans of Harlem performed for the Queen of England, Mick Jagger, and Stevie Wonder, on the same bill as Josephine Baker, at the White House, and beyond. But decades later there was almost no record of their groundbreaking history to be found. Out of a sisterhood that had grown even deeper with the years, these Swans joined forces again—to share their story with the world. Join us for a lively discussion revealing the glamour and grit of professional ballet, a riveting account of five extraordinarily accomplished women, a celebration of both their historic careers and the sustaining, grounding power of female friendship—and a window into the robust history of Black ballet, hidden for too long. This program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation. This program contains EXPLICIT language. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An innovative investigation of the five strange worlds that worship women’s chests. After years of biopsies, sociologist and bestselling author Sarah Thornton made the difficult decision to have a double mastectomy. But, after her reconstructive surgery, she was perplexed: What had she lost? And gained? An experienced sleuth, she resolved to venture behind the scenes to uncover the social and cultural significance of breasts. Join us in person or online as Thornton talks with Michael Lewis and draws on what she learned from latest book, which excavates the diverse truths of mammary glands from the strip club to the operating room, from the nation’s oldest human milk bank to the fit rooms of bra designers. Thornton has insights from plastic surgeons, lactation consultants, body-positive witches, lingerie models, and “free the nipple” activists to explore the status of breasts as emblems of femininity. She examines how women’s chests have become a billion-dollar business, as well as a stage for debates about race, class, gender and desire. Blending sociology, reportage, and personal narrative with refreshing optimism and wit, Thornton has one overriding ambition―to liberate breasts from what she says are centuries of patriarchal prejudice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ready for an adventure into the “bare stuff of reality”? Join us for a special online program when theoretical physicist Sean Carroll returns to the Club on the occasion of the publication of his new book Quanta and Fields, the second book of his internationally acclaimed series The Biggest Ideas in the Universe. Quantum field theory is how modern physics describes nature at its most profound level. Starting with the basics of quantum mechanics itself, Carroll explains measurement and entanglement before explaining how the world is really made of fields. Why is matter solid? Why is there antimatter? Where do the sizes of atoms come from? And why are the predictions of quantum field theory so spectacularly successful? Carroll explains fundamental ideas like spin, symmetry, Feynman diagrams, and the Higgs mechanism are explained. Sean Carroll is creating a new approach to sharing physics with a broad audience, one that goes beyond analogies to show how physicists really think. He cuts to the bare mathematical essence of our most profound theories, explaining every step in a uniquely accessible way. In association with Wonderfest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can you imagine an America where housing, health care, a college education, dignified work, family care, an inheritance, and an income floor are not only attainable by all but guaranteed, by our government, for everyone? But isn’t this pie-in-the-sky thinking? Not by a long shot, according to Natalie Foster, co-founder of the Economic Security Project. She says our current economic system is chock full of government-backed guarantees, from bailouts to bankruptcy protection, to keep the private sector in business. So why can’t the same be true for the rest of us? Her vision for a new American Guarantee is rooted in real-life experiences, collaborations with some of today’s most important activists and visionaries, and a concrete sense of the policies that are possible—and ready to implement—in 21st-century America. Natalie Foster joins with Dr. Darrick Hamilton, economics professor at The New School for Social Research, to discuss shifting the debate about our shared economic system.     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices